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A challenge for two people. Get two 6-foot lengths of soft cotton rope— the sort sold at grocery and hardware stores as clothesline will sometimes work. One person ties each end of his rope to his wrists, as shown in the sketch. The second person passes one end of his rope through the rope tied to the other person's wrists, and then ties his rope to his wrists, as the sketch shows. It is faster if a third person does the wrist tieing.
Now for the challenge. The two people must get loose, so that they are no longer attached to one another, but under the following conditions: (1) the wrist knots are not untied or loosened in any way, and (2) the loops are not slipped off the wrists. When the two people are loose, the ropes should be in just the same state, but no longer linked together. Most people, after trying this for a while, will say it is impossible to separate the two persons under these conditions. But it isn't, at all.
Try it; don't give up at once, there
is
a very simple solution. No cutting, no untieing.
A link to a page with a solution is hidden somewhere on this page. Don't consult the solution prematurely! This question means nothing unless you struggle with the quest for an answer!